Stuck between taking a misaligned role vs risking unemployment — need honest advice

Hi everyone,

I’m currently an intern at Qualcomm, and I’ve been performing well in my current team (development-oriented work). My long-term goal is to move into software development(or AI/ML field, for which i am studying along with my job)

The situation is a bit tricky right now — due to market conditions, there are no confirmed full-time openings in my current team at the moment. However, There’s a good chance openings might come up in the near future (nothing guaranteed though).

Meanwhile, I’ve been recommended by senior managers/directors to explore opportunities in other teams and they shared my resume with them, and I’ve interviewed for a couple of them.

Here’s the issue:

The roles I’m getting are mostly in system testing / build & integration

They involve:

minimal coding(sometimes even no coding)

more debugging, logs, validation

sometimes even long working hours (which concerns me)

and they want a minimum 1-2 year commitment.

During the interview itself, I felt completely disconnected from the work

Now I’m stuck between two options:

Option 1:

Take one of these roles

Safe (job secured)

But not aligned with my career goals

Risk of getting stuck in a non-dev path

Option 2:

Wait and take a risk

Hope for an opening in my current (dev) team

Prepare for external opportunities in parallel

Risk ending up unemployed if nothing works out

I’m honestly confused.

On one hand, I don’t want to make a fear-based decision and regret it later.

On the other hand, the job market isn’t great, and staying unemployed also feels risky.

My main concern:

If I take a non-dev role now, will it significantly slow down or damage my chances of moving into development/AI later?

Would really appreciate advice from people who’ve been in similar situations:

Is it smarter to secure any role first?

Or better to take a calculated risk early in career?

Thanks in advance 🙏